Fourth Annual "The Best"

January 21, 2014

Environmental/Sustainability

Best environmental change we have madeAcross three retail locations, we instituted a 95-cent coffee refill policy for any size travel cup or mug instead of having one price for your first cup and a “refill” price for your second, which was hard to keep track of. This policy encourages our neighbors in the building and those utilizing more green practices to keep these good habits up and helps streamline our service at the register. In another location that serves more espresso beverages, we are now offering 10 cents off any drink when customers bring in their own cup.—Maya Vincelli, assistant director of retail operations, University of Richmond, Virginia

The best change we’ve made is the addition of pulpers in our facilities.—Joie Schoonover, assistant director of university housing, University of Wisconsin, Madison

We installed new refrigeration technology that will help to reduce energy consumption by up to 22%.—Ronald DeSantis, director of culinary excellence, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Best way to reduce waste or energy consumptionBy placing compost containers at each workstation in our multi-platform servery, we have raised employee awareness about the food that gets discarded at the end of a meal period and at the end of the day. This has helped to change production behaviors to avoid waste altogether.—Patti Klos, director of dining and business services, Tufts University, Medford, Mass.

Best overall sustainability program I’ve seenWe initiated the Farm to College Program at the University of Montana in the spring of 2003 with the help of graduate students from our Environmental Studies Program. Our mission is to support agricultural and economic development statewide through the purchase of local food, while also working to serve higher quality, more nutritious food on campus. We also seek to make purchasing decisions that are best for the well-being of those who use our facilities and for the health of the environment by considering the proximity of food sources to our campus as well as fair, ecologically sound and humane production practices.

In addition to our buying practices, we also established an on-campus garden and a self-contained aquaponics system as a way for us to grow some of our own food and offer a learning laboratory for students on campus. And in our dining halls, we use a variety of reusable and compostable to-go containers, napkins, utensils and serviceware.—Mark LoParco, director of dining services, University of Montana, Missoula

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